


From the East, where the flowers bloom.

by ab_aeterno



Category: NU'EST, Nu'est W - Fandom, Produce 101 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 02:17:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15402759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab_aeterno/pseuds/ab_aeterno
Summary: And we came back to colour.Vaguely inspired by the lyrics of Love Paint.





	From the East, where the flowers bloom.

_And we came back to colour._

Minki stared at his hands. Outside, a clock ticked. Funny, he thought, logic says it's been ticking at the same speed as always. But occasionally, he felt his heartbeat pulse at his throat and in those moments, the clock seemed to tick more fervently, loudly, almost. As if drilling a message into his head. 

It had taken him at least two months to get used to the monochrome again. Although he had been born with grayscale vision, like everyone else, a break away from that monotony had cruelly made him forget what the 23 years before that had taught him. It was like consuming a drug, he thought calmly, once you'd had a taste, nothing could make you forget it. You could never go back to life before that, as if it had never happened. And it was never enough. Once he'd had a taste of life with colour, going back to monochrome was like ripping his own skin off to slip into another one. 

Everyone knew it could happen when the bond between soulmates shattered. Both of them would slip back into the gray and black shadows they'd come from before they'd dipped each other's lives in paint and coloured everything with their hue.

The first night of monochrome, Minki couldn't slam the door shut like he'd seen them do in movies. He didn't have the strength. He didn't even close it. He let it creak slowly back and forth as the air was sucked out of his lungs, slowly, almost like a tender hug, a kiss of poison. He'd shut his eyes, screwed them tightly shut. When he finally opened them the next morning, he realized what he hadn't realized the previous night - his mahogany floor was a shade of grey. Numb, he dragged himself off the floor and looked outside. Panning the street with his eyes, he saw dozens of people walking around under Seoul's autumn sunlight - coloured various shades of grey, white and black. It took him 63 days to wake up to white sunlight and grey bed sheets and not feel his lungs collapse from torment. For those two months, his soul would twist and cry out inside him, while he maintained a collected composure. Didn't cry, didn't scream or shout or throw things around. Not once. He went to work the same way and came back home by metro the same way. The only changes were subtle ones. He lost the skip in his step. He lost the crinkles around his mouth when he smiled. He stopped staring around himself in wonder at the world. He stopped watching the moon or the clouds or the blooming flowers. 

The first night of monochrome, Jonghyun couldn't storm out of the apartment that always smelled pleasantly of lavender. He couldn't rush out aggressively or angrily like he'd seen them do in movies. He stumbled out of the apartment like a drunken, hopeless man. On the way back, hugging himself from the cold, he stumbled in the snow, almost losing his footing. But he kept moving. Slowly, drunkenly, tiredly, but he kept moving. Suddenly, he froze. Every cell in his body stopped moving. He swore he felt his heartbeat stutter. As he watched, the camellias in a small bush in front of him lost their deep red tinge and faded to a dark gray. He sank to his knees. To a passerby on the street, Jonghyun looked almost lost in reverent prayer. In fact, he couldn't string enough words together to form a prayer, but if he could, he would ask his Lord to take his sight away because no sight was better than this. This reminder, every second of the day, of the shards lodged in his heart. 

Jonghyun took 71 days to adjust. He still took his bicycle to office, still had the same instant ramyun after work, still set 4 alarms because he never heard the first one. But he went to sleep with the TV blaring so there was some noise in his empty apartment. He stopped looking in the mirror longer than necessary to tame his hair. He forgot the colour of his irises. He stopped glancing innocently into art shops, wishing one day he'd have enough money to buy a huge canvas and smear paint all over it. 

 

257 days later, Minki stared at his hands. He sat at the bus stop, dangling his legs from the bench because they wouldn't touch the ground. It was a Thursday morning and suddenly he was tired. Tired of the monotony that had seeped into his life. Aside from the colour (or lack thereof) he'd also become a shell of a person. Sure, he still went to office parties and potlucks and visited home for the holidays but he'd sunk into monotony. His soul no longer felt alive, colourful. He got off the bench and began walking. Loosening the tie at his neck and rolling back his sleeves, he began walking. He wandered around for a while but then decided to walk home.

Walking in the direction of his building from the traffic junction, he saw a man dressed in dark grey formals from head to toe walk perpendicular to his path. The man stopped in front of his apartment building, stared at his window for approximately 60 seconds, as if trying to snap a picture with his eyes, then continued to walk on his way. Had it not been for the hair sticking up from the back of his head, Minki wouldn't even have thought much of it, considering he'd been really out of it for the last eight months - barely registering people walking by him. But his tiredness today had caused his restless mind to reflect on details in his surroundings and this man's hair registered itself. Minki's steps quickened. Then slowed. Of course it was Jonghyun. But that was not what caused him to pause. Knowing Jonghyun, this was a habit. Walking by this street, when he was sure Minki had left, just to stare for a few seconds at the polka dotted curtains in Minki's window, just short enough to convince himself that it wasn't a big deal and just long enough to satiate his heart that wouldn't stop fluttering _dammit_ every time he walked this way - this was a habit Jonghyun had developed. 

Minki walked faster, caught a glimpse of Jonghyun rounding the corner. He suddenly had a terrible feeling of something being lost to him. He ran. 

" _Yah"_ , he called out. Jonghyun flinched but continued walking. Minki stayed right where he was. He'd flinched. He'd reacted. That was enough for Minki. 

But it didn't seem to be enough for Jonghyun. Despite the flinch, he maintained perfect composure otherwise and kept a consistent pace walking away from Minki. Thirty-seven steps down the same lane later, he turned. Still walking at the same pace, he walked towards Minki, with the same porcelain expression. Eight steps away from Minki. Five steps. Two steps. " _Fuck you",_ he breathed when he was one step away from Minki, coming to an abrupt stop. 

Minki hummed in response.  _"Fuck you too"_ , were Minki's first words to Jonghyun in eight months.

They glared at each other, neither gaze softening. Jonghyun's smoldering gaze burned into Minki's icy stare. Jonghyun was the first to speak.  _" Great. Just fucking great. I won't be able to focus on work today. I won't be able to listen to Mina's lunchtime stories about her toddler and I won't be able to answer the damn phone because I'll just be thinking about your damn "yah!" all day. Good job. Even if you'd seen me, would it have killed you to just let me walk away like you hadn't?!"_

 

Minki watched him calmly. Despite the enormousness of the situation, Minki had the ability to tackle stressful situations with an icy calm exterior. He waited. 

Jonghyun laughed bitterly. 

 _"Sometimes, I can't breathe and I wonder if I'm drowning in something I can't see"_ , Minki murmured. 

Jonghyun made a sound that could have been a growl. He took Minki's shoulders and slammed them against the nearest wall. He pressed his lips against the hollow of Minki's neck. Minki blinked away tears that had nothing to do with the pain in his shoulders. Kissing his way up Minki's neck harshly, Jonghyun moved his hands up to grip the sides of Minki's face. He tilted his face towards Minki's lips. Minki whimpered, his icy exterior shattering. Jonghyun silenced him with his mouth. Neither could stop their trembling. They moved their lips against each other just as perfectly as they had 258 days ago. Pressing his body even closer to Minki's, eliminating any space between them, Jonghyun groaned against Minki's mouth.

Tears slipped out of Minki's eyes as he felt his heart aching. He'd missed Jonghyun so much. He hadn't spent a single second crying after the first night of monochrome, and all the tears were building up behind his eyes. They broke free as Jonghyun kissed him like his life depended on it. " _I hate you....for....everything...for leaving me.....for  showing up today....for every damn thing....I hate you so much",_ gasped Minki, between kisses. Jonghyun tasted hot against his lips, the first exposure to his fire he'd had in eight months. He tasted of peppermint and sugar and everything Jonghyun. Minki curled his fingers in Jonghyun's collar, pulling him closer, closer, as close as possible, breathing in his scent. 

Every time Jonghyun broke apart for air, Minki would just pull him back in again, kissing him like his life depended on it. Something unfurled in his chest. Finally, he let Jonghyun go and gasped for air.

Still within three inches of each other's faces, they gazed at each other, saying things with their eyes that they didn't need to voice aloud. Finally, Jonghyun smiled his dazzling smile. Minki ravished him with his eyes, taking in all his bronzed skin and pearly white smile, the way his eyes crinkled up with joy and his tousled chocolate brown hair. 

" _I missed your irises most. Nothing like them. I dreamt of them day and night. I forgot what my eyes looked like, but never yours",_ said Minki. 

They both knew Minki was speaking from his heart. 

And just like that...

_they came back to colour._

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the lyrics of Love Paint (every afternoon) by NU'EST. Should I add more chapters based on lyrics of other NU'EST songs? Comments are highly appreciated~~


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